Transcript Civilization KEY IDEA Farming villages produced extra food and

Patterns of Change:
Civilization
KEY IDEA Farming villages produced
extra food and developed new
technologies. The result is the rise of
civilizations.
Villages Grow into Cities
• New technology led to more productive
agriculture. Surpluses of food were
produced.
• People began to move into the areas
where food was plentiful and available.
• The people began to develop innovative
technologies that gave them better
control of their environment (such as
irrigation).
Agricultural Revolution
• Over time, farmers developed new
tools—hoes and plow sticks—that
helped them grow even more food.
• They decided to plant larger areas of
land.
• The people in some villages began to
irrigate the land, bringing water to
new areas.
New Technology
• People invented the wheel for carts and the sail for
boats.
• These new inventions made it easier to travel
between distant villages and to trade.
Social Changes
• Life became more complex as the villages
began to grow.
• People were divided into social classes,
some with more wealth and power than
others.
• People began to worship gods and
goddesses that they felt would make their
crops safe and their harvests large.
5 Aspects of Civilization
• Historians consider a civilization to
have these five features:
–1. advanced cities,
–2. specialized workers,
–3. complex institutions,
–4. record-keeping,
–5. advanced technology,
Sumer had all the features of a
civilization.
Advanced Cities
• The key factor that
defines a city is that it is
a major center for trade.
• The ancient city dwellers
depended on trade as
much as we do today.
• Farmers, merchants and
trades brought their
goods into the cities to
barter for other goods.
Specialized Workers
• Food surpluses provided the opportunity for
specialization.
• Not everyone had to farm so they could spend
their time making other types of goods or
providing a vital service to the people within
the city.
– Priests, scribes, pottery makers, cloth
makers, jewelry makers, metallurgists etc…
Complex Institutions
• The growing populations within the cities
needed some type of organized system of
governance to keep order and maintain the
cities functions.
• These types of institutions were:
– Government, religion and the economy
Great temples were built to honor the gods of
the city. It took great coordination to build
sum magnificent structures.
This is an artist depiction of an ancient Mesopotamian citymost likely Babylon
Record Keeping
• This is the time in human history where writing
was developed. It first emerged in
Mesopotamia as a way to keep track of
business dealing.
• As the written language developed, others
began using it to record many events. This is a
major milestone- humans leave pre-history
and write them selves into history. This
occurred about 3,000 BC.
• The writing system is called cuneiform
Examples of cuneiform
writing on clay tablets
• People began developing all types of new tools to solve
the problems that came with surviving within a large
population.
• Such inventions were:
Ox drawn plows
Irrigation
Wheel and sail
Potter’s wheel
Calendars
Astronomy
creation of bronze
architecture
urban plumbing
legal system
24-hour day
Mathematics based on 60
Sumer
• The first civilization
arose in a region of
Southwest Asia
known as Sumer—
between the Tigris
and Euphrates
rivers of modern
Iraq.
Sumer Enters the Bronze Age
• One of the new technologies that the
people of Sumer created in about
3,000 BC, was the ability to make a
metal called bronze.
Civilization Emerges in Ur
Ur in Sumer
• One of the early cities of Sumer was
named Ur.
• It was surrounded by walls built of
mud dried into bricks. It held about
30,000 people, divided into such
social classes as rulers and priests,
traders, craft workers, and artists.
An Agricultural Economy
• Ur supported its large
population by irrigating the
farm fields.
• Large canals were built that
carried water far from the
rivers. It is clear that a
strong organized
government would have had
to oversee not only the
construction of this complex
system but operate it and
maintain it as well.
City Life in Ur
• Excavations of Ur suggest that there was a well
planned city design.
• There were distinct residential areas, trading
areas and manufacturing areas within the city.
• There is evidence that most of the people lived
within the city walls. And that there was an
emerging class system.
The Temple- The Center of the City
• The most important building within the
city of Ur was the temple-ziggurat.
• The Ziggurat was constructed in the
center of the city. It was used for
administrative purposes, religious
worship and a storage facility for
surplus grain.
This structure is called a ziggurat. It was the
temple complex in the center of Mesopotamian
society
• The city of Ur and other cities in Sumer
represent a model of civilization that
continued throughout history.
• Most aspects of ancient Mesopotamian
civilization are present in our modern
cultures all around the world.